The Emergency Room here is much different than ones that we are used to. There were four of us in the room. My boy, and three others. There were not only four because that were all that needed to be in there- but the room only had space for four kids.The girl on the table next to ours was laying motionless. The doctor ran over and began to shake her "girl! girl!! girl!!!"- no response. What is happening to her? Is she alive? Finally she made a small noise- just barely audible- but loud enough to know that there was still life. The doctor yelled for someone to bring blood. A bag of blood was brought and they hooked it up like an IV drip. I watched as they frantically checked to see if the blood transfer was working. It wasn't. After a minute or so, they disconnected the bag, yelling that the bag of blood was expired. They rushed to get another bag of blood to try to save this girls life. The doctor looked at me and my boy appoligetically. "I will be with you in a moment, I hope you understand that I am trying to save this girls life.". I nodded. My boy, Faizal, wasn't doing well- but he was not as bad off as this girl. My eyes filled with tears as I watched this young eight year old girl on the line between life and death. Her dad was standing over her watching helplessly.
As they continued to work on this girl, a mother with her 1 day old baby stood behind me. Another doctor came in and started to try to help her. The baby's chest was rising and falling at an incredible speed. I have never seen anything like it. I don't know what was wrong. I don't know why she was breathing so fast. The hooked her up to oxygen. Another woman brought her young baby in. She opened the blankets wrapped around her baby, and I heard her start to cry as the doctor gasped at the sight of the babies intestines being outside of the baby. My boy was probably in the best condition out of all of them. They put him on a drip, and then transfered him to a ward.
Faizal is still in the hospital, but he is doing better now. He can walk, eat, laugh, and stay awake now. He can sit up on his own. He has come a long way since we got him admitted. Thank you God for watching over him! Please pray that he will continue to get better.
While Faizal seems to be doing better, I wonder about those other children I saw. Are they okay? Did they make it? What happened to that little baby....? And that eight year old girl? ...........How do you process something like that? Each of those are a human life! A life. Someone's daughter, someone's son. Words don't adequately expain...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I have grown to love the drives home in our big van after I pick up our 9 nursery school kids from school at noon each day. Normally these drives consist of me asking what they did at school, and then hearing from nine kids at once about how they ate chapatis and drank tea or porage and how they sang songs and wrote the word "sun". After talking about school, I usually appoint one of the kids to start singing, and we sing "blessed be your name" or some other worship song the whole rest of the way home. I love it so much.
Today's ride home from school though was a little different. It started out fairly normal: talking about school, having to repeatedly tell certain kids to "sit down" (there are no seat belts)- but it took a little bit of a different twist. Somehow, we ended up talking about death. They started telling me about "Jackie"- a girl at our home who died only a few months before I came. Now I had heard about her from Holly, as well as from the older children talking about her. I already new the story- but it was different hearing it from the mouths of these 5 and 6 year old children. They told me of how she got really sick, how they took her to the hospital, and how Mommy Holly said they were bringing her back, but that she was dead. They told me how Mommy and Cathy and some of the others started crying. After they had all finished with the story- I told them about how Jackie was now with Jesus. How when Jackie was here with us, she was very very sick- but now that she is with Jesus, she is very happy. And she is no longer sick. She gets to sit every day with Jesus and be near him and talk to him. And all her sickness is gone. My eyes began to fill with tears as this conversation, even though I never knew Jackie, struck a sensitive place in my heart. Inside, I realized that someday too, these kids, my kids, would be all better as well. Someday, if they love Jesus, they will be with him also and they will no longer have ANY sickness or disease.
As I thought about these things inside, I continued to talk with the kids about how even though it is sad for us when someone dies- for them, if they know Jesus- it is a very happy time for them- because they get to go live with Jesus, and because he heals them of all their sickness and pain. The kids seemed to understand. As we rounded the corner towards home, they started one by one piping up with "my daddy died", and another with "my auntie and ja-ja (grandmother) died", and another "my mommy and daddy died", and another "my brother died" and another "all my sisters died".........my tears began to spill over at the honesty and bluntness of these young children. As we pulled into our compound, I turned around in the drivers seat to look at them. I told them how God has given us a new family now. And it is right here. He has given us a mommy and daddy and brothers and sisters...right here at our home. I told them how if their mommy's and daddy's and brother's and sisters' and aunties' loved Jesus- then one day, when we meet Jesus in heaven, we will get to see them again too. They all nodded silently as they climbed out of the van to go eat lunch.
I treasure these children so much, I am reminded how good it is to be honest and open like little children. I am reminded that someday, this disease that can sometimes over take these childrens' bodies- will have no power over them in heaven. In heaven, these children will be free.
Today's ride home from school though was a little different. It started out fairly normal: talking about school, having to repeatedly tell certain kids to "sit down" (there are no seat belts)- but it took a little bit of a different twist. Somehow, we ended up talking about death. They started telling me about "Jackie"- a girl at our home who died only a few months before I came. Now I had heard about her from Holly, as well as from the older children talking about her. I already new the story- but it was different hearing it from the mouths of these 5 and 6 year old children. They told me of how she got really sick, how they took her to the hospital, and how Mommy Holly said they were bringing her back, but that she was dead. They told me how Mommy and Cathy and some of the others started crying. After they had all finished with the story- I told them about how Jackie was now with Jesus. How when Jackie was here with us, she was very very sick- but now that she is with Jesus, she is very happy. And she is no longer sick. She gets to sit every day with Jesus and be near him and talk to him. And all her sickness is gone. My eyes began to fill with tears as this conversation, even though I never knew Jackie, struck a sensitive place in my heart. Inside, I realized that someday too, these kids, my kids, would be all better as well. Someday, if they love Jesus, they will be with him also and they will no longer have ANY sickness or disease.
As I thought about these things inside, I continued to talk with the kids about how even though it is sad for us when someone dies- for them, if they know Jesus- it is a very happy time for them- because they get to go live with Jesus, and because he heals them of all their sickness and pain. The kids seemed to understand. As we rounded the corner towards home, they started one by one piping up with "my daddy died", and another with "my auntie and ja-ja (grandmother) died", and another "my mommy and daddy died", and another "my brother died" and another "all my sisters died".........my tears began to spill over at the honesty and bluntness of these young children. As we pulled into our compound, I turned around in the drivers seat to look at them. I told them how God has given us a new family now. And it is right here. He has given us a mommy and daddy and brothers and sisters...right here at our home. I told them how if their mommy's and daddy's and brother's and sisters' and aunties' loved Jesus- then one day, when we meet Jesus in heaven, we will get to see them again too. They all nodded silently as they climbed out of the van to go eat lunch.
I treasure these children so much, I am reminded how good it is to be honest and open like little children. I am reminded that someday, this disease that can sometimes over take these childrens' bodies- will have no power over them in heaven. In heaven, these children will be free.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
